DIY Tank Monitor --> Tank Controller chat

[diveboy]

This post has spawned from Bad Inferno's (Rob) post in the Amazon Garden section http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10076

After several comments about his pH graph, we all got deep and meaningful and started chatting about how to do it ourselves.

we are in two minds as to how far to go; the first being to implement a tank monitor and the second to implement a tank controller.

the second choices are sensor hardware.

1. Phidget sensors from http://www.phidgets.com
2. Using one wire sensors from http://www.owfs.org

either method, you will need some sort of controller (pc,laptop, nslu2, wrt54g) to get your data out to the web.

I think using either method, you will be able to build a monitor that will pump data out and possibly alert for less then AU$500.00

What do you think ? what features would you like ? how much would you spend ? how technical minded are you ? can you solder ? can you program ? would you prefer to just plug sensors in ?

Would you trust such a system to control your tank ? or would you use it only as a monitoring system that would email/sms/Beep ?

Would you want to use the one system to monitor more than one tank ?

Michael

[Bad Inferno]

What options do we have for SMS....I understand there are companies that you can email the alert to, then they pass on via SMS....I did chase them up some months ago however seemed quite expensive....Email notification is easy and at no cost ? however I do like the idea of SMS...b

[diveboy]

for sms,

http://www.mbox.com.au charge 13 cents an SMS, this was on the first page of google searching for "web sms service".

if you are with Three, you can sign up for the "email pack" for $3 a month and use it for notifications, get hourly reports, even send commands back for no extra cost

of course, this would assume you have an always on internet connection which is reasonable to expect these days.

[Bad Inferno]

SMS...I was looking at the corporate guy's where you send an email to them with the number embedded within the message....This options seems cheaper...and I should easily be able to use it, especially if I setup a dedicated email account. thanks

Maybe we should look at a html based logging system where once you take manual readings of various parameters you just enter them into a web page and display a trend of these variables over time OK it wont be minute by minute however it maybe worth while to log weekly data. Some parameters like CO2 we can provide the calculation....This would allow a web front end to be developed with trends etc fed from manual data together with an event log
Thus if they wanted to move to automatically monitored variables it would be easily achieved.

I have an ulterior motive for this as I do need help developing an event log for my site, which shows :

Alarms...as monitored by the system,
Event Notifications..... ie filter clean next week,
Aqua Log...manual entry of what has happened..ie added fish, dead fish (needs an entry form)
Acknowledged alarm/events...List of archived alarms

I'll pm you with some thought's....was hoping to do this with simple ascii files being read from a cgi page without having to go to sql...the amount of data I believe would be minimal ~200 lines of events.

[Bad Inferno]

SMS -Just realised this week bigpond mail does this for 0.25 per message you can set up a filter on your email sender or subject line and it just gets charged to your internet account.....After reading a post about a tank emptied onto the lounge room carpet I may use this SMS just to monitor tank level....outside of normal water changes.

Just need to be super careful that you only generate 1 message and not 1000's

[ryan]

not a bad idea - I read the same thing and you can only imagine the feeling if it happened

i use a company called messagenet in the office which sounds like a similar service - you end up with a email being sent to 0412123456@messagene.net.au and the sms is sent that way - we prepurchase a block of sms - they are pretty cheap depending on the volume you buy ~20-22c

[Bald_noggin]

Hello all,

I'm new to this web site and I'm finding it to be some interesting reading. I am about to purchase a 6x2x2 tank which I'll be seting up as a planted discus tank.

This topic however, has hit my sweet spot in the way of electronics and aquariums

I have already designed a microcontroller that performs the following operations:

-- Has a Real Time Clock.

-- Uses non-volatile memory to remember user settings should there be a power failure and returns to normal operation once power is restored.

-- LCD display with time and date (even adjusts for daylight savings depending on which state you live in).

-- Controls lighting including a sunrise/sunset simulator (over 5 minute periods) based on switch on/off times entered by the user.

-- Controls the temp of the tank to within 2 degress (ie if temp is set for 25 degrees, heater on at 24, off at 26).

-- Has both visible and audible alarm feature with a mute for the audible part should the temp go 2 degrees above or below the set temp.

The range of temp for the switching the heater on and off and alarms can be easily adjust in software and can be as low as 0.5 degrees but I think 1 degree is sufficient (for the heater) as the device (a Dallas DS18B20 for the technical people) has an accuracy of 0.5 degrees.

I can also add on sump level alarms using simple float switches.

A flow sensor could be used also to detect if a sump filter pump fails or simply a high level float switch to detect excess water in the sump.

The RS232 component of the micro has been reserved for future development. This can be used to send data to a computer at regular intervals to Log data or alert the user to an alarm but speaking of SMS, there is a kit available (which could be interfaced to this project) that uses old Nokia 6110's with a prepaid card or what ever, that can SMS the user of an alarm event and even tell them what the alarm is.

I have toiled with the idea of a pH meter, but that is going to take a bit more research but if implemented, could also be used to control a solenoid for CO2.

I have built this and bench tested it over several weeks to check out the automatic daylight savings adjustments, lights on/off, sunrise/sunset, temp control and alarms. Although it has not been tested in an actual aquarium environment yet, in its current form, it will work.

I would like to know how many people could be interested in such a project to deem if it is worthwhile to get some prototype boards made up.

Any questions, ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Cheers,
Col.

[Bad Inferno]

you really need to find a reef forum to talk about automation...as they either have more money or more demanding Aquaria needs. We can obviously embrace automation for Discus however the reef guy's are just more active in this arena.

[Bad Inferno]

After running my web enabled tank monitor now for probably 1 year its time to move into fully automated water change control, its been a long time comming. This will be done on a time basis and also a manual button request. Also be a fill only mode in case I do a vacuum and empty into bucket and just need an auto fill.

I have recently built some cheap digital I/O components. Futurlec provide very cost effective opto isolated I/O boards which are very easy to fit 1wire devices onto. This allows you easily to control each output and monitor voltage or contact inputs. In line with the objective of cost effective with inherent reliabilityand flexibility, both these boards cost ~$17.00 each

The DO board will control my fill solenoid and drain solenoid, which I currently have a simple switch onto at the moment. The Fill solenoid will have a float switch directly interlocked such that if my controller poops it self it will not overflow the tank


The DI board will monitor a button to start water change and also the fact drain & fill solenoids are active. DI board not yet mounted in box.


You can see only minor changes are needed for the DI board.


cheers rob

[ryan]

nice work rob - will be interested to hear about it when its up and running